Fighting gender-biased sex selection: The role of transnational communication and international harmonization. Insights from South Korea, India and Vietnam - Rahm, Laura
Over the past 30 years several Asian countries - from Armenia to Vietnam - are facing sex imbal-ances at birth, favoring male offspring. Despite the social, economic and political diversity of these countries, their governments have implemented similar public policies to address the growing mas-culinization of their populations. These include legal bans, awareness raising campaigns and enti-tlements for girls. This paper explores the reasons for the convergence of public policy addressing sex selection, drawing from policy files and interviews conducted with policy makers, scholars, and representatives of international agencies in South Korea, India and Vietnam between 2014 and 2015. It finds that transnational communication and international harmonization - promoted by in-ternational organizations and epistemic communities - are the most important factors in explaining similar policies among diverse countries. International organizations led by UNFPA play a key role in collecting data and supporting interventions against sex selection, emphasizing evidence-based policy-making. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to internationally promote and transfer policies without being certain of their impact.
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Keywords: conferencePaper